Minutes of meeting
Renfrewshire Council · 22 August 2023
Back to Communities and Housing Policy Board — 22 August 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Minute of Meeting Police and Fire & Rescue Scrutiny Sub-Committee Date Time Venue Tuesday, 16 May 2023 15:00 Council Chambers (Renfrewshire), Council Headquarters, Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley, PA1 1AN PRESENT Councillor Robert Innes, Councillor Janis McDonald, Councillor Marie McGurk, Councillor Mags MacLaren and Councillor Iain McMillan. Chair Councillor McGurk, Convener, presided. IN ATTENDANCE G Hannah, Head of Climate, Public Protection and Roads; M Hendry, Resilience & Deployment Manager (both Environment, Housing and Infrastructure); E Gray, Senior Committee Services Officer, K O’Neill, Assistant Democratic Services Officer, J Barron, Assistant Committee Services Officer and D Pole, End User Technician (all Finance & Resources). ALSO IN ATTENDANCE L Napier, Chief Inspector; W Graham, Area Commander and D Falconer, Superintendent (all Police Scotland); and D McCarrey, Area Commander and M Hill, Group Manager (both Scottish Fire & Rescue Service). WEBCASTING OF MEETING Prior to the commencement of the meeting the Convener intimated that this meeting of the Sub-committee would be filmed for live or subsequent broadcast on the Council’s internet site.
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting. 1 DRAFT ANNUAL POLICE PLAN 2023/24 There was submitted a report by the Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure relative to the Draft Annual Police Plan 2023/24, attached as Appendix 1 to the report. The report indicated that in accordance with the Police & Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, Police Scotland had a responsibility to develop a strategic police plan for policing that reflected the Scottish Government’s national outcomes, strategic police priorities and justice strategy. The report detailed arrangements to deliver against the strategic police plan in the year ahead. Police Scotland had prepared an Annual Police Plan which set out the proposed arrangements for policing in the year ahead. Police Scotland had sought feedback from CoSLA in March 2023 on the draft document. Given the strategic importance of the Plan, CoSLA had taken a paper to the CoSLA Community Wellbeing Board meeting on 21 April 2023 to review the document in more detail and formally consider CoSLA’s position on the plan. Police Scotland had advised that CoSLA’s submission would be a key consideration as the plan was implemented throughout the year. Police Scotland would ensure that CoSLA’s submission was highlighted through their internal governance to enable them to continue to work closely with CoSLA and local authority partners. Prior to publication, the plan had been laid before the Scottish Parliament and made visible to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA). Upon publication, activities related to the outcomes and objectives were monitored through Police Scotland’s quarterly performance reports. A bi-annual report, specific to the progress of the Annual Police Plan was presented to the SPA and made available online. Strong partnership working was already well established in Renfrewshire which would help support police priorities which were aligned to the Local Policing Plan 2023-2026 published on 1 April 2023 and Renfrewshire Community Plan. DECIDED: (a) That the draft Annual Police Plan 2023/24, as attached as Appendix 1 to the report, be noted; (b) That the Police and Fire & Rescue Scrutiny Sub-committee support the Chief Executives response to CoSLA (as detailed in Section 3.10 – 3.13 of the report) which welcomed the opportunity to comment on the draft Annual Police Plan; and (c) That the priorities and objectives set out in the proposed draft Annual Police Plan 2023/24 be agreed.
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2 POLICE SCOTLAND - PERFORMANCE REPORT There was submitted a report by the Area Commander, Police Scotland, relative to service performance and activities in the Renfrewshire area during the period 1 April 2022 to 28 February 2023. The report summarised the key performance indicators and provided statistics relating to the specific key objectives detailed in Police Scotland’s Policing Priorities 2022/23. Comparisons were made against the preceding reporting year. The volume of recorded crime and offences had risen by 2.3% on the previous year. The report provided updates in relation to Renfrewshire Policing Priorities 2023/26 of violence, disorder and anti-social behaviour; protecting vulnerable people; acquisitive and cyber/digital crime; serious and organised crime and road safety and road crime. Overall violent crime had fallen by 0.8% on the previous year. Protecting vulnerable people category had seven fewer cases than the previous year with detection rates increased by 9.1%. Overall crimes of dishonesty had increased by 13.9%, with common theft, fraud and shoplifting (three of the highest volume acquisitive crimes) all on the rise. A rise in the number of detected crimes resulted in the same detection rate being achieved compared to the previous year (29.3%). Almost half of crimes tagged with the ‘cybercrime’ marker recorded in the current reporting year were acquisitive crimes, most commonly online frauds. Intelligence led policing resulted in 136 drugs detections in the current year, a rise of two on the previous reporting year. In Renfrewshire & Inverclyde Division, serious and organised criminals were deprived of £1,110,489 in cash and assets through use of the Proceeds of Crime Act. Overall, road casualties had increased by 15 to a total of 147. The detection rate for offences relating to motor vehicles was 85.5%. Drink and drug driving offences had increased by 3.1% as a result of local officers and Road Policing officers having carried out proactive checks on motorists while on high visibility patrols. In the period April 22 to February 2023, there were 683 recorded missing persons incidents, an increase from 552 on the previous year. Almost 13% of the total number of incidents related to the five most frequent missing persons within Renfrewshire, all of whom were young people aged 16 years or under. Police Scotland remained committed to reducing harm related to people who go missing and continued to develop and implement key measures to ensure missing persons and their friends and family received a consistently high level of service. In Renfrewshire, over 73.2% of missing people were traced within 24 hours of being reported as missing, with this proportion rising to approximately 94% being traced within three days. DECIDED: That the report be noted 3 SCOTTISH FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE - QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT There was submitted a report by the Group Manager, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) relative to SFRS performance and local fire and rescue service plan priorities in the Renfrewshire area during period 1 January to 31 March 2023. The report provided updates in relation to Renfrewshire activity, accidental dwelling fires and casualties, unintentional injury and harm, deliberate fire setting, non-domestic fire safety and unwanted fire alarm signals.
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Accidental Dwelling Fires had increased by 44% (14 incidents) on the same period last year. An increase of 67% from three to five dwelling fire casualties, for this reporting period, was recorded. Non-fire casualties remained static from the same period last year with a total of 17 casualties, of which eight (47%) were as a result of road traffic collisions. Deliberate fire setting had decreased by 19% (25) incidents from Q4 last year. The report also provided information on Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals (UFAS) which had shown an increase of 1% (two incidents) year on year, a breakdown of the number of incidents, categories and where these occurred was also provided. DECIDED: That the contents of the report be noted. 4 SPOTLIGHT - ROADS POLICING WEST L Napier, Road Policing Chief Inspector, gave a presentation in relation to Roads Policing and Safety, which remained a significant priority for Police Scotland. The presentation provided information in relation to The Fatal 5:- Drink/Drug Driving, Careless Driving, Speed, Mobile phone use and Seatbelt wearing which were widely regarded and recognised as the main contributing and causation factors in all serious and fatal road traffic collisions. The Road Policing department dedicated the majority of road policing patrol time to targeting the Fatal 5 and detailed measures taken to address and improve these were provided. The number of officers together with their rank which made up this service was also provided. Information was also provided on the National Calendar of Road Safety Activity; Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 and Transport Scotland’s vision to have the best road safety in the world. These initiatives were all created with the aim to improve road safety. DECIDED: That the contents of the presentation be noted 5 SPOTLIGHT - SCOTTISH FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE - 'TIME FOR CHANGE' M Hill, Group Manager, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, gave a presentation in relation to ‘Time for Change’ which highlighted the changes Scottish Fire & Rescue Service (SFRS) would implement in the procedures used for responding to Automatic Fire Alarm System in particular Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals (UFAS). These changes would be implemented to reduce the number of UFAS. Currently SFRS attended around 28,000 UFAS annually, around 30% of all operational activity, with figures increasing year on year as more automatic fire alarm signals came online. Reducing this number would reduce unnecessary disruption to businesses; improve availability of SFRS resources; reduce blue light journeys and disruption of primary employers of on-call firefighters. Following extensive consultation; changes would be implemented with effect from 1 July 2023 to reduce the number of UFAS calls. SFRS would no longer attend automatic fire alarm calls to non-exempt premises which included factories, offices, shops and leisure facilities, unless a fire had been confirmed. This would not apply to sleeping premises such as hospitals, care homes, hotels, sheltered housing or domestic dwellings. Communication from SFRS advising of the changes would be circulated to
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those responsible who had automated fire alarm signals within the premises. These changes would result in a reduction of around 57% of attendance for UFAS which would free up additional resources for SFRS. DECIDED: That the presentation be noted. 6 LOCAL ISSUES There were no local issues raised by members of the Police and Fire & Rescue Scrutiny Sub-committee.